Riverside County Sheriff S Department

A Riverside County sheriff's deputy was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to kill two witnesses in a murder case against a convicted felon, a man she met inside the county jail -- when he was an inmate and she was a guard, authorities said Wednesday. Angela Carol Parks, 32, assisted George Anthony Hernandez Jr., 28, while he was being held at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside in an alleged slaying, Riverside County Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles Hughes said.

Moreno Valley police arrested the final suspect Monday in the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl. Michael Sykes, 19, was arrested about noon at a residence in Moreno Valley, said Cpl. Courtney Donowho, a Riverside County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman. He had not been booked into jail as of Monday afternoon. Six male juveniles had previously been arrested and booked in Riverside County Juvenile Hall on charges of sexual assault on a child. A teenage girl who allegedly helped lure the victim to the scene of the rape was also arrested.

The Riverside County Sheriff's Department is investigating the shortage of at least $300,000 from an off-track betting facility, money that apparently was bet by a parimutuel clerk during the last two weeks of the Del Mar horse racing season. "No arrests have been made, but we have some suspects," said Sgt. Steve Hill, who is heading the investigation. "We've done some partial interviews with some people."

A Riverside police officer has been arrested on suspicion of robbing an auto parts store in Moreno Valley on Wednesday night, authorities said. David Reeves Jr., 28, of Moreno Valley allegedly tried to rob an Auto Zone store in the 23500 block of Sunnymead Boulevard about 9 p.m., according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. Moreno Valley police detained Reeves one minute after store owners called police, authorities said. Reeves joined the Riverside Police Department in 2001 as a cadet, said Sgt. Jaybee Brennan, a spokeswoman for the department.

Federal officials investigating whether money from the Riverside Sheriffs' Assn.'s legal trust fund was embezzled or misused have ended their probe without filing charges, according to a lawyer for the trust. In September, federal agents raided the association's office as part of an FBI and U.S.

At that crucial moment--in a decision that may define the rest of her life--Alicia Sotero Vasquez decided not to run when Riverside sheriff's deputies approached the truck in which she was riding Monday. "I was too afraid to run away," Sotero, who had previously identified herself as Leticia Gonzalez Gonzalez, said in an interview from her hospital bed Wednesday. "When the truck stopped [on the Pomona Freeway], everyone was screaming, 'Run! Run!' But I didn't.

Embattled Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy Tracy Watson's lawsuit against his bosses, alleging that he was coerced into writing an incriminating report about his involvement in the baton beating of two illegal immigrants, is "absurd," according to the county's response filed Monday. Watson's federal lawsuit should be dismissed, the county argued, because the deputy was not deprived of his constitutional rights when he was ordered to write his report about the incident.

Reeling from an international uproar over a televised beating by two of his deputies, Riverside County Sheriff Larry Smith bitterly denounced their actions Wednesday and announced that the one suspect taken into custody had been released after officials concluded that he was not the driver of a pickup truck loaded with suspected illegal immigrants.

A cop is accused of crossing the line--and attorney John D. Barnett is in the maelstrom once again. The bookish defense lawyer has been up since 2 a.m. to appear on a network morning show in defense of his latest high-profile client, one of the two Riverside County officers whose videotaped beating of undocumented immigrants set off an international furor. By noon, a parade of television crews has trooped through Barnett's Orange suite.

Two sheriff's deputies were shot early Tuesday when a routine search for a juvenile felony suspect turned into a running gun battle through a quiet neighborhood park. The alleged gunman, identified by authorities as Gilbert Raymond Garcia, 32, was found about six hours later--sleeping--in an abandoned apartment about four blocks away, capping a house-to-house dragnet that unnerved neighbors with the sight of shotgun-toting lawmen and police dogs.

Los Angeles police on Monday rescued a hostage who had been shot in the stomach and held in a Riverside County home in a suspected kidnapping-for-ransom, authorities said. The hostage was "taken by force" from his home in Van Nuys on Wednesday and taken to a two-story residence in an area of Riverside County near Corona, said Lt. Anne Clark of the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Division.

A Rubidoux man died Friday after he was mauled by two pit bulls, officials said. The 60-year-old victim lived with the dogs at the home where he was attacked, according to Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez, a spokesman for the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. The dogs -- a male and female -- belonged to a relative. "He was just sitting in the backyard smoking a cigarette and for some reason the dogs attacked him," Gutierrez said. The victim died at the scene. The dogs were signed over to the Riverside County Department of Animal Services by the owner and euthanized, said spokesman John Welsh.

A teenage boy was shot and killed Sunday afternoon while driving in a car just outside Riverside. The boy, whose name and age were not released, was a passenger in a Toyota Camry on Van Buren Boulevard and Jurupa Avenue, said Juan Zamora, spokesman for the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. A car pulled up next to the Camry and someone in the car opened fire, hitting the youth. The Camry driver went to a parking lot of a shopping center and called paramedics, who pronounced the boy dead.

Four Marines from Camp Pendleton have been arrested in the slaying of a Marine and his wife at their home in the Winchester neighborhood of Riverside County, military and civilian authorities said Tuesday. The four have confessed in the killing of Sgt. Jan Pietrzak, 24, and his wife, Quianna Jenkins Pietrzak, 26, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. The motive allegedly was robbery. Items from the house were found in the defendants' possession, authorities said. Pietrzak and the four suspects were assigned to a helicopter squadron.

A Corona police officer shot and killed a man Monday afternoon after the man fled from a stolen car and brandished a gun, a police spokesman said. The officer was responding to a call of a suspected drunk driver in a white sport utility vehicle in the 1400 block of Circle City Drive, said Sgt. Jerry Pawluczenko. The officer spotted the vehicle, ran a computer check of the license plate and determined that the vehicle had been stolen in a carjacking reported to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, Pawluczenko said.

A man who allegedly shot the mother of his 5-year-old daughter in Temecula and kidnapped the girl was arrested Saturday and turned over to Riverside County sheriff's officials Sunday. Kaylee Jocelyn Cardona was reported missing at 4:26 a.m. Saturday. An Amber Alert was issued about an hour and a half later, warning that her father, Jose De Jesus Cardona Alcala of Los Angeles County, might be taking her to Mexico. Kaylee's mother, Marta Ochoa, 43, was in a medically induced coma Saturday morning after undergoing surgery to repair damage caused by at least one bullet wound in the torso, according to Matt Diaz of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

Moreno Valley police arrested the final suspect Monday in the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl. Michael Sykes, 19, was arrested about noon at a residence in Moreno Valley, said Cpl. Courtney Donowho, a Riverside County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman. He had not been booked into jail as of Monday afternoon. Six male juveniles had previously been arrested and booked in Riverside County Juvenile Hall on charges of sexual assault on a child. A teenage girl who allegedly helped lure the victim to the scene of the rape was also arrested.

Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle has been appointed to the state parole board, the governor's office said Wednesday. Doyle, 54, of Murrieta, surprised staff members and other county officials last week when he announced that he would resign to take the post. He joined the Riverside County Sheriff's Department in 1975 and was elected sheriff in 2002 with 66% of the vote. He cruised to a second term in 2006 with 72% of the vote.